Varadkar says Ireland would need an exit strategy if it goes to level 5



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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that if Ireland goes to Level 5 of the Covid-19 restrictions, people will demand an exit strategy like the one they have in Germany.

According to the Irish Times, Mr Varadkar told his party colleagues yesterday that for the state to move to Level 4 or 5, it would have to be convinced that it is the right thing to do.

He said he did not want to be rushed into making a decision on a Covid-19 lockdown until it was completely necessary to do so.

In Germany, the public receives detailed information about the specific measures that need to be taken to allow the region to move down the line.

Medical director Dr. Tony Holohan warned last night that Covid-19 was “not under control” and that the disease’s trajectory was rapidly deteriorating.

Public health officials have written to the government to make further recommendations after a significant increase in infection levels.

Dr. Holohan said that the number of cases had almost doubled and the number of hospitalized patients was growing faster than exponential growth models predicted.

There are currently 238 people hospitalized with the virus at this time and another 29 people in the ICU.

The scale of the infection today is beyond the capability of any level of resourceful contact tracing process, Dr. Holohan admitted at the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) briefing last night.

Existing trends

With widespread community transmission, it was no longer possible to “make links” in a large part of the cases.

Since the disease is no longer under control, Nphet recommended population-focused measures.

If existing trends continue, there will be up to 2,500 cases a day by the end of this month, along with 400 people in the hospital and up to 110 in the ICU, authorities forecast.

Last night, the Department of Health announced three more Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic of Ireland, along with 1,205 additional confirmed cases of the virus.

It brought the total number of Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland to 1,838.

288 of yesterday’s cases were in Dublin, 173 in Cork, 123 in Meath, 97 in Galway 63 in Cavan and the remaining 461 cases were spread across all remaining counties.

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